


white flag winter

by four (three)



Series: homegrown (a sleepy bois collection) [4]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Brotherhood, Families of Choice, Family Dynamics, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hot Chocolate, Hurt/Comfort, Maybe - Freeform, Moving On, No Beta, Platonic Soulmates, Snowman, Toby Smith | Tubbo-centric, Winter, tubbo sees the future?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28900266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/three/pseuds/four
Summary: Tubbo imagines what things will be like when it's all over.Tommy chooses Tubbo in every moment, rashly, without thinking, but Tubbo chooses the future because he counts Tommy being by his side as a given.
Relationships: Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Series: homegrown (a sleepy bois collection) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064543
Comments: 5
Kudos: 114





	white flag winter

Tubbo bore his horns like a mantle of guilt. They weighed on him as his head dipped with every decision, muddied with everyone's selfish desires. The choices his friends made were each borne of their own compass, that changing thing inside of them that led them onward. Tubbo's always pointed forward. He couldn't help but seek a future, just out of reach. Each time he laid down a policy, read out a law, it fluttered just outside of his grasp. 

L'Manberg, what's left of it, smells like winter. The yawning hole where everything used to be threatens to swallow him whole as it has done to so many. He touches his hand to his horns and thinks of the last person who'd bore them. He was somewhere down there in the nothingness. Tubbo stares at the consuming coldness of it and closes his eyes against the vertigo.

He could see it sometimes when he didn't mean to. The future he wanted. 

-

Tommy's sword is plunged into a snowbank, discarded in favour of different task. He's rolling a snowball, massive and white. His shock of snowy blond hair is blown back by the cold, and his nose peeks out from behind a scarf. It's a jumbled brown plaid, rows of mismatched earth tones tucked up around his ears. Tubbo recognizes it as his own.

"Come on, Big T! Finish up your bit and we'll have a proper snow-girlfriend." Tommy crows, and grunts as he rolls his own.

"Alright, alright." Tubbo says, a grin splitting his face.

He pushes his mitted hands against the snowball in front of him, guiding it into a patch of fresh snow. It creaks as it squishes more onto itself, and Tubbo smooths down the sides.

Once satisfied with the bulk of his own, Tubbo studies Tommy's. It's misshapen and lumpy, with unseemly craters. 

"Toms, why don't you go find us a carrot then?" He asks, and gestures back towards his cabin. "I'm sure there's some in the root cellar."

"Sure." Tommy juts his chin out, always ready to prove himself. He trudges back through the trench they've cleared, and Tubbo waits until his fair-hair is out of sight. Then, he begins the onerous task of fixing Tommy's snowball. He pats snow into the divots and rubs his thumb along ridges until they disappear. It's terribly uneven, and Tubbo's eyes narrow as he tries to decide if he has enough time to remake the thing in its entirety.

"Tubbo?" Tommy is standing there, holding a carrot aloft. 

"Tommy!" Tubbo hears his voice crack, and he stumbles back, landing on his ass in the snow.

Tubbo watches his friend's eyes drift over the two snowballs and land on Tubbo's face. "Well, good stuff, Big T. She's alright. Now gerrof your arse and let's put her together." Tubbo is briefly surprised that he hadn't received a snowball to the face for tampering, but does as he's told. Tommy complains that he's not strong enough to lift the top on his own and Tubbo needles him a little but obliges him. They loop their arms around the snowball and wedge it on top. It plonks down satisfyingly and Tommy jams the carrot right in the middle. 

"She's a looker." Tommy waggles his eyebrows. "Hot snow girlfriend."

"Right you are." Tubbo says.

The sun is dipping, turning the shadows bright blue in the snow. The spruce trees cast long dark lines across the landscape, cutting it into white strips where the setting sun passes through. Tubbo's cabin sticks out against the darkening sky, little golden squares of windowlight calling out to him. He nudges Tommy and Tommy nudges him back, harder. They shove back and forth until they're both brushing snow off their trousers from falling. "Hot chocolate?" Tubbo offers. He's got milk and cocoa and the fire in the hearth won't be out entirely. 

"Please." Tommy grins. "Last one back has to muck out the barn." He adds, and then he's gone, boots sinking into snow rapid-fire as his figure retreats. Tubbo makes a valiant effort, but the snow is deep and getting deeper and he's tired and Tommy is a sore loser. When he makes it to the door, Tommy is catching his breath, heaving hot mist into cold air. Tubbo pats him on the shoulder. 

"You win, big man." He says and passes him. 

-

Tubbo's eyes flutter open to a cold sparking feeling on his cheek. He touches his finger to it, finding a wet spot. A flurry of white catches in his periphery and he tilts his head up, away from the blackness and toward the open sky. Snow is falling like pinpricks of light. When he looks back down to the crater, the darkness is dispersed by winking stars. In a few hours, it will all be blanketed in snow, but he knows he won't stay to see it.

He chooses the future in this moment. Any reverence for their fallen city is long-gone. The materiality, the physical aspect of home, mean nothing. 

He startles when a hand falls onto his shoulder. The fingers are cold where they brush his neck.   
  
"Where to, Tubbo?" Tommy says.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed reading :) i like to sit on the edge of angst and dip my toe in  
> please leave a kudos and comment! i take requests.
> 
> find me on twitter @moncuries


End file.
